A gas turbine engine generally includes a fan and a core arranged in flow communication with one another. Additionally, the core of the gas turbine engine general includes, in serial flow order, a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. In operation, air is provided from the fan to an inlet of the compressor section where one or more axial compressors progressively compress the air until it reaches the combustion section. Fuel is mixed with the compressed air and burned within the combustion section to provide combustion gases. The combustion gases are routed from the combustion section to the turbine section. The flow of combustion gases through the turbine section drives the turbine section and is then routed through the exhaust section, e.g., to atmosphere.
More commonly, non-traditional high temperature materials, such as ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials, are being used for various components within gas turbine engines. For example, given an ability for CMC materials to withstand relatively extreme temperatures, there is particular interest in replacing components within the flow path of the combustion gases with CMC materials. More particularly, there is interest in replacing rotor blades of the turbine section of the gas turbine engine with blades formed of CMC materials.
CMC turbine rotor blades generally are formed from a plurality of plies of CMC material. The plies may be divided into segments, with each segment corresponding to a portion of the rotor blade. For example, one segment of plies may correspond to an airfoil portion of the blade, one segment of plies may correspond to a dovetail portion of the blade, and so forth for different portions of the turbine rotor blade. The segments of plies may be processed in an autoclave to compact and cure the plies to form the turbine rotor blade.
However, typical rotor blades have plies in three dimensions, e.g., plies in some segments of a blade have a first ply direction and plies in other segments of the blade have a second ply direction, e.g., normal to the first ply direction. Compaction of such a blade having plies in three dimensions can be difficult, as the plurality of plies of the blade are not oriented in the same ply direction.
Accordingly, a method for fabricating a gas turbine engine component utilizing multiple processing steps would be useful. Further, a method for forming a component of a gas turbine engine having plies in three dimensions would be beneficial. More particularly, a method for fabricating a turbine rotor blade of a gas turbine engine, the turbine rotor blade having CMC plies in three dimensions, would be particularly advantageous.